NBA Live 2004

The NBA Live series of basketball games, published by EA Sports, is currently one of the leading National Basketball Association simulations on the market. Its only major competitor is Take-Two Interactive's NBA 2K series. more...

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History

The game is descended from the NBA Playoffs series, starting with Lakers vs. Celtics, released first in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and later adapted for consoles in 1990 for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis. This game was played from a horizontal view (while later versions moved to an isometric view before ultimately moving to 3D on newer consoles). The game was one of the first to feature an NBA license, containing both real NBA teams and player likenesses and signature moves. For example, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's goggles are clearly visible, and his sky hook shot is animated with very high accuracy. Detailed player numbers were also visible. The game featured all sixteen teams that made the NBA playoffs that year, as well as both NBA All-Star teams.

The next game in the series was Bulls vs. Lakers, released in 1991, followed by Bulls vs. Blazers in 1992. Unlike the first game, these two releases were titled after the two teams who were in the NBA Finals the previous season, while the original release apparently chose the Lakers and Celtics due to both teams' historical success. Each revision added more teams and players, as well as signature moves. The series also included an Olympic basketball game, Team USA Basketball (1992) which uses the same engine. The final game in the series was NBA Showdown 94 for SNES before the transition to the NBA Live series. This game has been cancelled.

NBA Live

Originally, the NBA Live series was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES with NBA Live 95. The naming was changed from utilizing the last two digits of the year to the entire year number from 2000-2005, but returned to the original naming convention with NBA Live 06.

The Create-A-Player feature was not available in the 1995 versions of the game, but have been a mainstay since NBA Live 96. NBA Live 98 in 1997 was the last NBA Live game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the SNES. NBA Live 98 also was first NBA Live series game to support 3Dfx graphic cards. Only first generation Voodoo and Voodoo Rush cards were officially supported.

In-game commentary is currently done by Marv Albert and Steve Kerr. Greg Anthony and Ernie Johnson provide the commentary for the Slam Dunk competition. Previous commentators on the game have included Verne Lundquist, the late Don Poier, Reggie Theus, Bob Elliott, Mike Fratello, and Kenny Smith.

Due to licensing problems, some players did not appear in certain versions of the game. Michael Jordan (although he previously gave his likeness to EA's Jordan vs Bird: One on One and Jordan In-Flight) and Charles Barkley (who endorsed Barkley: Shut Up And Jam! games) for instance, appear in NBA Live 97 as Roster Guard and Roster Forward. The former, however, returned in NBA Live 2000, which received a special mention in the game cover (in NBA Live 96, Jordan and Barkley, as well as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and other legends could be unlocked simply by giving that name to a created player). Barkley had returned in NBA Live 98 after rejoining the NBPA.

Read more at Wikipedia.org